Adventurers Beware
by The Dead Fish
Summary: The categories pretty much say it all - NextGen characters playing Jumanji. Just a random crossover I've been wanting to write for a while. Rating may change. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

It's a story of its own how Albus and Scorpius ended up chasing each other down the long, winded corridors of the Room of Requirement in its "hide something so it can never be found" form, based on their now over the course of four years well-nourished frienmity and involving a visit to the kitchen at night, a dare to bewitch a teapot, a shelfful of shattered dishes and a petrified flamingo that really needed to be hidden – but this is not that story.

This story begins after they hid the flamingo (in a large closet that looked half-molten, as if someone hadn't quite succeeded in turning it into a giant candle). "And if you wouldn't have been so clumsy," Scorpius said and punched Al friendly on the shoulder, "we needn't have come here." "Ah yeah?" Al replied, punching back – and hitting thin air, as Scorpius had set off, laughing, down the corridor. Al needed no second bidding to pursue him.

Scorpius led the way down the narrowest paths he could find, enjoying the feel of forbiddenness emanated by the long-forgotten objects around them when suddenly, Al stopped short.

"Did you hear that?"

Scorpius paused as well, turning towards Albus to see whether he was bluffing. For a moment, the room remained quite still. Then –

"Drums?"

Al nodded. For a moment, they looked at each other and silently agreed that their chase was over, then they made their way through the illegal litter of the centuries towards the sound that throbbed in the otherwise silent air.

It turned out to come from inside a grand piano with strange runes carved into its sides, apparently quite violently. However, the piano didn't make the noise.

None of the boys wanted to show a sign of fear, and Al breezily stepped forward and opened the lid, trying to look as expert at it as he could (he'd never gotten so close to a piano before). In an instant, Scorpius was by his side.

On the strings of the piano lay a wooden box. It had one word carved across the two-part lid: _Jumanji_. As they cast their eyes upon it, it fell silent.

Scorpius, whom Al constantly teased for not being brave enough to be in Gryffindor, quickly reached forward and picked it up before Al could beat him to it. "What is it?" Al asked, snatched the box from Scorpius, put it on the ground and opened it.

"A board game", Scorpius said, swiftly kneeled down opposite Al and picked up the dice. Al started to read the rules out but Scorpius interrupted him. "I know how to read, thank you very much!" He ran over the rules, then said, perhaps with a slight sense of discomfort he would never, ever have admitted to Albus: "Not my kind of game" and stood up, throwing the dice back upon the board.

* * *

_Not really sure how to play this out in a world where magic, killer plants, giant spiders and whatnot are not all that unusual, but I want to try anyway :) And Jumanji seemed just like the kind of object someone would hide in the Room of Requirement. I plan on having Rose Weasley and Lily Potter as the other two players. Tell me what you think!_


	2. Chapter 2

The small, black rhinoceros figurine that had stood in one corner of the board, as if waiting patiently, started moving of its own accord: two and three eyes the dice showed.

The boys exchanged a look. It wasn't a surprise an object hidden here was enchanted – they knew they should have been more careful. "Rose won't let us hear the end of it," Al moaned. "Maybe she'll even tell her parents, and they'll tell mine…"

"Look," Scorpius interrupted Al's grumbling. Words in a venomous green had appeared in the middle of the board:

_At first sight, they seem fluffy and pink_

_Only their number should be of trouble a hint_

"Dad told me about a DADA teacher they had that would apply to," Al mumbled.

Nothing else happened.

"C'mon," Scorpius said. "Let's get out of here, or we'll be late for breakfast. And _then_ they'll be sure to catch us." "Right," Al said, closed the game and replaced it where they'd found it.

They were in time for breakfast. They entered the Great Hall separated by about thirty seconds (which was as long as Scorpius' patience allowed him to wait), so none of the teachers would see a connection between them, and then perhaps a connection to the events of the night.

Lily raised her eyebrows as Al sat down at the Gryffindor table. "Been out this night, bro?" she said, loud enough for their neighbours to hear. She knew him too well; she always saw these kinds of things.

"Be quiet, little one," he hissed. "You're not a sneak, are you?"

"Only if you take me with you next time," she hissed back, but her added murmur of "not a baby anymore" was lost in Roses turning round – she sat at the Ravenclaw table, of course – and sternly saying: "What? You've been out at night?"

Al rolled his eyes – he'd known it! – and threw a glance over to the Slytherin table. Of _course_, Scorpius had no such problems. He just sat there joking with his friends. Spoilt single child, he was. Rose interpreted his glance correctly. "With Scorpius? You'll get in trouble with this boy, mark my-"

She was interrupted by the arrival of the post.

Only it wasn't the post that arrived.

It was a herd of flamingos.

And by herd, I mean _many_. There seemed to be no end of them. The air filled up with pink and white wings and pink and black beaks and pink and _pink_ legs. "Flamingos," Al groaned, remembering the reason they'd ended up in the Room of Requirement in the first place, but no one heard him, because everyone squealed and dived under the tables as the first flamingos landed on them, spilling over drinks and messing up the tablecloths. He decided it was a wise move after the first wing slapped him on the back of his head, and joined his fellow students.

"Tell me you've nothing to do with this!" Rose shouted at him from under her house table. "I've nothing to do-" Al began, but then Scorpius caught his eye, which was difficult through the forest of stick-like pink legs that rapidly filled up the space between them as more and more flamingos landed. He mouthed three words: _Fluffy and pink._

"Oh," Al said. "I'm afraid we _have_ something to do with it."

Her eyes spoke volumes, but she didn't get to answer. Someone must have kept their head, because suddenly, the flamingos took off, screeching, and disappeared as fast as they'd come. Cautiously, the students crept back out of their hiding places.

"Who," demanded the headmaster, apparently the one who'd cast the spell to drive the birds away, "is responsible for this?"

Rose stared intensely at Albus without saying a word. He glared back, shaking his head. She put on a face of utter contempt and turned towards the teachers. For a moment, he really thought she'd say something, but to his great relief, she kept her mouth shut.

Silence rang through the hall, as loud as a bang. Then a quiet voice said, giggling, to his friends: "Probably the climate change."

"Very funny, Mister Malfoy."


	3. Chapter 3

No one, of course, answered the question. Scorpius lost Slytherin five points with his cheekiness but thought it was totally worth it, as he claimed later. For now, Al tried to evade Rose as the masses flowed out into the entrance hall and towards the lessons of the day – unsuccessfully.

"So what have you been up to?" she demanded, appearing right in front of him as if she had just Apparated. He hastily turned to swerve around her, only to face his little sister. "Yeah, Al," Lily said, copying Rose's exact tone. "What have you been up to?"

Scorpius managed to fall behind the clique of Slytherins who were expecting him to come with them and joined the little group. Al thought for a – as he scolded himself – silly, relieved moment he had come to his rescue – but no. "Seems that game really has something about it," he said enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear. Rose's lips tightened. "What game?"

Al sighed, gave Scorpius a reproachful look, that only made him grin even wider, and said to the girls: "Alright, we'll show you."

"Not now," Rose threw in immediately. "We've got lessons. But-"

"No matter," Lily said quickly. "We'll only be a couple minutes late, so come on, Rose!" Al wondered if he should be troubled by his sister's willingness to skip lessons but he told himself he had more than enough trouble himself.

Moments later, as it seemed to them, and even in real time it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, they were standing in the Room of Requirement again, the game board amidst them on the ground. They had seen the herd of flamingos standing in the shallow part of the lake from the windows, and that gave Scorpius the unsettling feeling that it wasn't quite over with a little mayhem at breakfast.

Rose had been muttering things about irresponsibility all the way (she didn't decide to go to her lessons instead, though), and now said scornfully: "You know what dad always says? You should never trust-" "Yes, right, I know that one. But we didn't know it could think, did we?" Albus moaned, and Scorpius felt it his duty to add: "No, we didn't."

"Looks exciting," Lily said with glistening eyes, and before Al could stop her, she had grabbed the dice and rolled. The second piece, a white elephant, moved the seven steps.

"Look what you've done!" Rose stood up straight and folded her arms. "This could be dangerous! We should tell-" She interrupted herself as another verse showed up on the board.

_I'll show you what you're looking for_

_But you must reward me, or…_

At the same moment, a little bird chirruped down from a nearby pile of trash. "Oh no, not more birds," Al sighed. He noticed he was sighing a great deal lately. "Don't dramatize," Lily said and got up. "It's only a bird! And I'm not even sure whether it came out of the game."

The bird called melodiously, flew up, tail feathers spread, and landed a bit further away, chirruping sweetly in their direction again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Don't follow it!" Rose said sharply as Lily started to do just that. The bird's meaning couldn't have been plainer if it had spoken. It looked at them as Lily stopped, tilted its little head, called again, fluttered a little way towards them and back to the spot it had last sat on.

"It says _I'll show you what you're looking for,"_ Lily said, pointing at the board. "So why not?" "Are you looking for anything?" Rose retorted sharply. "No! So who knows where it would lead you?"

The bird repeated its previous action, as demonstrative as possible, apparently slowly losing its patience: it landed a little further away now.

Lily took a few steps, then paused again. "No, you're probably right," she quietly said then. "But really, what harm can such a little bird do? And it's so pretty!" "It also says _You must reward me," _Scorpius said, eyeing the bird suspiciously. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Just leave it," Rose said, and Lily turned around and walked back to the others.

The bird gave an ugly screech you wouldn't have believed to be generated by the same creature as the soft call before and disappeared in the depths of the room.

The four friends all startled at the sound and watched it fly away. "Okay," Rose said nervously, "so that's settled. Can we go to the lessons now? We'll all end up in trouble."

"Sh," Scorpius said, suddenly. "Do you hear that?" This time, _that_ was a low humming noise – so low at first they weren't even sure it hadn't been there all along. Then it grew stronger. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Rose," Al said quickly. He might have been imagining it, but the air seemed to vibrate. "What kind of a Gryffindor are you?" Scorpius teased, and then he shut up, for from the direction the bird had disappeared to, a mass of black dots came flying towards them.

"They're bees!" Rose shrieked. "Let's get out of here!" She turned to run, and the others followed her quickly. "The game! Take the game with you!" Lily, who was the last one, snatched the board, snapped it shut and ran for it.

The bees came down on them just as they reached the door. Al slammed the door after Lily, locking most of the swarm in the room, but a handful of bees made it through and caught the friends. Their poison burnt like hell, but like any decent bee, these died in martyrdom for their swarm as they put their stings into the four of them, and by the time they'd reached the end of the corridor, they were all gone.

"By Merlin's beard," Al gasped, plucking at a sting in his arm and suppressing a wail when he pulled it out. "What was that?"

* * *

_Hello Difdi (and anyone else who might make it to here)! Glad you like it. I'll try find something non-animal centered next time around..._


End file.
